Zhang Song walked in front, leading Zhang Bo, Sun Zhiru, and the ten Negotiation Experts into the opened tree-wall gap, allowing them to enter the Wood Elf Village.
This also included the twenty Khergit Veteran Mounted Archers, who had dismounted their warhorses, were clad in heavy lamellar armor, held heavy long spears and heavy rawhide shields, and had Nomadic Scimitars and heavy Nomadic Bows with conical-tipped arrow quivers strapped to their waists, appearing extremely fierce.
They all entered the Wood Elf Village together.
At this moment, these Khergit Veteran Mounted Archers, holding their warhorses with one hand and their long spears with the other, scanned the surrounding Wood Elf people who had gathered. They showed no fear at all; instead, they met the Wood Elf people's angry gazes directly, showing no sign of yielding in their eyes.
There was nothing to be afraid of.
It should be known that these Khergit Mounted Archers had previously used their heavy Nomadic Bows and conical-tipped arrows to personally kill these Wood Elf people from the city walls of the Castle District.
Each of them had at least four or five Wood Elf lives on their hands.
As victors, they were even more arrogant in coming to negotiate, so why would these Wood Elf people dare to glare at them with anger?
If it weren't for Lord Shen Mu's benevolence and generosity, the Green Leaf Group would probably have already fallen under Lord Shen Mu's iron cavalry.
It is these Khergit Veteran Mounted Archers who now look down on others; they no longer have to face the arrogant gazes of these Wood Elf people, but rather, they themselves look down on these Wood Elf people who are already outside.
"It seems that within the Green Leaf Group, our Wood Elf friends still harbor some hostility towards us."
Zhang Bo also noticed the Wood Elf people's gazes at this moment, causing his lips to curl into a mocking smile, and a look of disdain appeared in his eyes. His tone even carried some accusation: "You should know that Deherim's arrival fully demonstrates our desire for peace, and also considers the future of the Blue Star World, the inheritance of the Blue Star Civilization, and the continued existence of Blue Star Humans."
Zhang Bo immediately threw out a very grand statement, but it wasn't aimed at the Green Leaf Group.
Instead, it was aimed at himself.
At this moment, although he appeared to be standing on the moral high ground, demonstrating that he and Deherim were willing to negotiate with the Green Leaf Group for the sake of Blue Star Humans, Blue Star Civilization, and the Blue Star World.
However, the spiritual races of the Green Leaf Group were quite angry and hostile towards him.
This was clearly inappropriate.
It was as if Zhang Bo was standing on the moral high ground, condemning the Green Leaf Group.
But in reality, these three grand statements—Blue Star Humans, Blue Star Civilization, and Blue Star World—were not aimed at the Green Leaf Group but rather at Deherim.
If Deherim were to eventually eliminate the Green Leaf Group, wouldn't that mean disregarding the idea of peace, the future of the Blue Star World, the inheritance of the Blue Star Civilization, and the continued existence of Blue Star Humans?
This would go against Shen Mu's original intention.
Moreover, if Shen Mu's original intention was for this peaceful vision, for the future of the Blue Star World, for the inheritance of the Blue Star Civilization, and for the continued existence of Blue Star Humans, then as the main person in charge of the negotiations, wouldn't it be appropriate for him to make concessions to consider Shen Mu's original intention and ensure Shen Mu's ideals?
This was a form of verbal dominance, but in practice, it was a position of weakness.
Simply put, it was about saving face at the expense of substance.
And this was also intentionally arranged by Zhang Bo, a key technique to ensure that the Green Leaf Group would not lose too many benefits in the upcoming negotiations and could still receive supplies from Deherim.
He and Zhang Song were cousins, and at this moment, he believed Zhang Song would understand.
In fact, it was true.
Zhang Song's expression remained unchanged at this time, but his eyes flickered. He certainly understood the meaning in Zhang Bo's words, but he pursed his lips and said nothing more.
He just waved his hand at the surroundings and said to the Wood Elf people, "Alright, we Blue Star Humans will handle things here ourselves. You all go back and rest first."
"Hmph!" The Wood Elf people from the Wood Elf Plane in the Astral Realm all snorted coldly at this moment, looking at Zhang Bo and the human mounted archers from Deherim with hatred, gritting their teeth, and then turned to leave.
After all, they still needed to obey the Blue Star Humans to whom they were loyal, who had completed soul binding and soul-level resonance.
Although they inwardly looked down on these Blue Star Humans, there was nothing they could do. Since they could come to the Blue Star World, they could only achieve soul-level stability with Blue Star Humans through soul-level resonance, which was why they were able to escape from the situation of being perpetually immersed in time stagnation, like a prison.
If these Blue Star Humans were to unbind them, they would be bounced back into the Astral Realm, experiencing that seemingly endless stagnation.
"Very good, now I believe that the Green Leaf Group does indeed intend to negotiate." Zhang Bo also saw the Wood Elf people snorting and turning to leave at this moment, and a slight smile appeared at the corner of his mouth.
He said this aloud, but his gaze met Zhang Song's, and he also saw the mutual understanding in the other's eyes.
The two sides had now completed their tacit cooperation.
However, among the ten Negotiation Experts behind them, some also slightly frowned. They had also noticed what Zhang Bo was saying at this moment. Although it seemed very lofty and appeared to be considering Shen Mu and Deherim, they always felt that these words were a bit strange.
It was as if Deherim was being highly elevated and made unable to effectively deter the Green Leaf Group in front of them.
But out of trust in Zhang Bo, they didn't say much. After all, they all knew that Zhang Bo was the main person in charge of this negotiation, and he had already received Lord Shen Mu's approval, and Lord Shen Mu had given him private instructions, and it was a one-on-one communication.
Thinking about it, they could probably guess that Lord Shen Mu must have given Zhang Bo extra instructions, which must have a deeper meaning.
Therefore, they also decided not to say anything more.
In any case, the Green Leaf Group is now a lamb to be slaughtered. It just depends on how fat and tender this lamb is, and whether these Negotiation Experts, as chefs, can personally apply various seasonings to this lamb and roast it until it's crispy and fragrant with various levels of heat, ultimately seeing if it can be presented to Shen Mu's satisfaction with this roasted whole lamb.
This is the most important thing.
'Clang! Clang! Clang!'
As they walked along the small path in the Wood Elf Village, past the treehouses, towards a wide ancient tree in the center, the sound of arrows hitting targets appeared not far away.
That was the training ground and archery range of the Wood Elf Village. At this moment, younger Wood Elf archers were holding their short bows and shooting arrows at targets with red bullseyes from a distance of forty to fifty meters.
And with the whistling of the arrows, each arrow accurately struck the apple-sized red bullseye of the target.
This fully demonstrated the exquisite archery skills of these Wood Elf.
"Excellent archery means excellent archers," Zhang Bo nodded in praise at this moment.
Of course, he also understood that this must be the Wood Elf Village, the Green Leaf Group, specifically arranging for Wood Elf to display their archery skills for these Negotiation Experts to see, proving that their current Wood Elf Village had not completely lost its ability to resist.
They still had the right to resist.
"Of course, the archery of the Wood Elf is quite famous throughout the Spirit World," Zhang Song, who was walking in front, revealed a faint smile, and his tone became a bit more arrogant: "In fact, if we were to conduct defensive or guerrilla warfare, many races in complex terrains like cities or forests, even with regular armies, would not be able to contend with our Wood Elf guerrillas."
This was both self-praise and a warning.
These words immediately made the Negotiation Experts frown. Their gazes at the exquisite skills of the Wood Elf became more thoughtful.
Because what Zhang Song said indeed made sense.
However, at this moment, the 20 Khergit Veteran Mounted Archer who had followed, still leading their warhorses, suddenly scoffed: "If we're talking about archery, we Kujit are in no way inferior to these Wood Elf, and we can also ride horses, making us faster in terms of mobility."
Especially when one Khergit Veteran Mounted Archer was speaking, he saw that he was about a hundred meters from the target, and without hesitation, he immediately took two big steps forward, drew the heavy Nomadic Bow from his waist, pulled out a bodkin arrow, drew it back with force, and then shot it directly towards the target.
'Bang!'
As the bodkin arrow traced a semi-circular arc, it then fell directly from the sky and stuck into the target on the spot.
Although it didn't hit the bullseye directly, it grazed its edge.
At this moment, the Khergit Veteran Mounted Archer looked at this scene with satisfaction, and snorted, saying, "What I'm better at is horse archery, shooting while galloping on a warhorse. And you should know that among the Vaegir people under our Lord Shen Mu, there is a powerful long-range archer called the Vigia Sharpshooter, whose archery skills are even more exquisite than ours Kujit."
"Oh, that's really good," Zhang Song, of course, also saw the archery skills displayed by this Khergit Veteran Mounted Archer at this moment, and his eyes couldn't help but narrow slightly.
He clearly understood that this Khergit Veteran Mounted Archer was obviously dressed like a heavy cavalryman, but he didn't expect him to have such exquisite archery skills while on foot.
It was already comparable to the archery of some Wood Elf who were more skilled in close combat.
It truly surprised him.
Moreover, he also heard from this Khergit Veteran Mounted Archer's mouth that among the Vaegir people, there was a powerful long-range archer called the Vigia Sharpshooter whose archery skills were even more exquisite than theirs, and his eyes flickered even more.
Although he still didn't fully understand how good the long-range archery of the Vigia Sharpshooter, as mentioned by this Khergit Veteran Mounted Archer, truly was.
He could certainly guess that it was not as good as the Wood Elf's, and certainly not comparable to the exquisite technical archers among the Wood Elf.
But you can't say it like that.
After all, the number of humans is simply too large, far exceeding that of the Wood Elf.
As long as there are 100 such human long-range archers, then there will certainly be 1,000 or 10,000.
Even if they suffer losses during training, it won't be painful.
Unlike the Wood Elf, this race is inherently small in number, and after the attrition of the End War, it can be said that they are sparsely populated.
One should know that there are only about 20,000 Wood Elf in the entire Wood Elf Plane now.
One less means one less when one dies.
Even if 10 such human long-range archers are exchanged for one Wood Elf archer.
Humans would profit.
Wood Elf would lose.
So Zhang Song had already inferred that, given such an exchange ratio, let alone their current Wood Elf Village, even the Wood Elf Plane in the Star Realm above would probably not be able to withstand such attrition.
"Very good. This is truly very good." Zhang Song's face gradually darkened at this moment, and he directly changed the subject: "You have come to our Wood Elf Village, to our Green Leaf Group. What's the point of displaying such methods now?"
"It's not that we want to show off, but that your Green Leaf Group, your Wood Elf Village, must understand that it was you who provoked our Deherim first at that time." At this moment, before Zhang Bo could speak, Sun Zhiru, who was behind him, snorted coldly and said fiercely, "You were the ones who attacked us first. What else do you want to say here? You must understand that if our Deherim were not truly benevolent, generous, and peace-loving, then you would have no right to speak these words in front of us right now."
"That's right, do you think your Green Leaf Group is still like it used to be, an era where you could share half of Long City with the Diesel Company?" The other Negotiation Experts also scoffed.
The other party had already intimidated and threatened them, so why couldn't they now display the power of Deherim?
If they were always suppressed by others, that was not their character, especially since they all knew that they were the absolute victors, and they had Shen Mu's Deherim and the human army within Deherim as their trump card.
Why should they be afraid?
